Why Does LaVar Ball Get to Decide What the Celtics and Lakers Do With Their Picks?

LaVar Ball wants Lonzo Ball to play for the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers won the #2 pick in the NBA Draft Lottery on Tuesday. All that is standing between the Lakers and Lonzo are the Boston Celtics and the #1 pick.

That’s where it gets confusing. What’s to stop the Celtics from holding him ransom? The Celtics can afford to draft a guy and not play him. Would Lonzo really be willing to sit out a full year without signing so he could re-enter the 2018 NBA Draft and force another team to trade him to the Lakers? It’s insane. It’s dumb. It’s exactly the kind of thing LaVar Ball would do, right?

Or is it? That’s not how you build a brand.

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Why would the Lakers call the Celtics bluff? We just saw a team trade up one spot in the NFL Draft to take a guy who almost definitely would have been there a pick later. What is Lonzo’s worth if he will only go to one team? No other team can even trade for him, right? Still, if Lonzo is the better player, would the Celtics really be happy getting bullied into passing on him? The Lakers have no reason to give up anything for him if that’s the case.

Why does the Ball family just get to win? What if the Celtics decide they’re happy with Isaiah Thomas and want to go a completely different direction. What if the Lakers have their choice and that choice isn’t Lonzo Ball? What if Markelle Fultz is clearly the better player in these workouts? And there are other options in Jayson Tatum and Josh Jackson. And De'Aaron Fox, the guy who completely outplayed Ball in the Sweet 16. What if these guys are superstars?

The Lakers still have to do their due diligence and must work out other players, right? What will the Balls do then? Just interviewing someone else might offend LaVar Ball. I mean, he’s not working out for other teams so why should the Lakers work out other players?

The Lakers are going to have to give this kid real money and the keys to their franchise. Not a few hundred shoe orders.

Stephen Douglas

Born and raised in Mid-Southern Upstate New York, Stephen holds a master's degree in public communications. Money well spent? I'd say so. These days he jokes about sports on the Internet. Professionally.